A panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected on April 24 the government’s denial of the right to seek asylum for asylum seekers who arrive at the southern border. The ruling stops summary deportations based on President Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day proclamation of an “invasion” at the US-Mexico border.

The court held that US immigration law “makes plain that the right to apply for asylum is broadly available to all foreign individuals present or arriving in the United States unless expressly restricted from applying.”

Last year, I traveled to Panama and Costa Rica to meet scores of asylum seekers from a Who’s Who of refugee -producing countries, including Russia, Iran, China, Afghanistan, and Cameroon.…